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4 Jul 2005 : Column 84W—continued
Expenditure
Mr. Herbert: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of what total managed expenditure between 1999 and 2000 and 2007–08 would have been had spending been increased by 2.5 per cent. per annum in real terms. [8351]
Mr. Des Browne: No estimate has been made of what total managed expenditure (TME) would be had spending been increased by 2.5 per cent. per annum in real terms.
Faith Awareness Training
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many civil servants in the Department received faith awareness training in 2004. [3806]
John Healey: Comprehensive information relating to how many civil servants in the Treasury have received training on faith awareness in 2004 is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
G8 Conference
Mr. Gale: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer who will bear the policing costs of the G8 conference. [8255]
Mr. Des Browne:
Policing is a devolved responsibility of the Scottish Executive and Scottish police authorities. The Government have agreed to contribute £20 million towards the cost.
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Great Britain National Insurance Fund
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the administrative costs were of the National Insurance Fund in each of the last three years; what the value of the Fund is; what estimate he has made of the (a) surplus in the Fund and (b) value of National Insurance contributions in (i) 2005, (ii) 2010, (iii) 2020, (iv) 2030, (v) 2040 and (vi) 2060; and what advice he has received from the Government Actuary on the desirable level of the surplus. [8751]
Dawn Primarolo: Information on the administrative costs to the Great Britain National Insurance Fund for the last three years are in the following table:
| Admin Costs | |
|---|---|
| 2002–03 | 1,241,496 |
| 2003–04 | 1,754,093 |
| 2004–05 | 1,480,033 |
The value of the fund as at 31 March 2004 stood at £27,081,605,770.
I refer the hon. Member to Table 15.7 on page 129 of the Government Actuary's Quinquennial Review of the National Insurance Fund (published in 2003) for the estimate of (a) the surplus in the Fund and (b) value of NICs in (i) 2005, (ii) 2010, (iii) 2020, (iv) 2030, (v) 2040 and (vi) 2060. In this context, surplus is defined as the excess of income over expenditure. The Government Actuary has not given any advice on the desirable level of surplus in the NIF in any particular year.
HIPCs
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether the suspension of debt servicing agreed by the G7 for the 18 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) who have reached their HIPC Initiative Completion Points (a) has been implemented and (b) is subject to ratification by international financial institutions; [8593]
(2) what estimate he has made of the total value of the G7 debt relief initiative in 2005 for the 18 countries qualifying; [8643]
(3) if he will make it his policy that funds from G8 aid budgets should not be used as part of debt relief arrangements; [8644]
(4) what criteria will be used to determine levels of good governance allowing the implementation of debt relief in developing countries; [8645]
(5) what further progress he expects to be made on aid and debt relief for developing countries at the G8 Gleneagles summit; [8646]
(6) if he will reduce the level of conditionality within the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. [8647]
Mr. Ivan Lewis:
Substantial progress has been made on both aid and debt relief in recent months. The EU has made an historic commitment to double its aid from current levels of around US$40 billion to over $80billion in 2010 and on debt G8 Finance Ministers have agreed debt relief worth up to $55 billion. The total
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debt service (principal and interest) of the 18 HIPCs due to the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank in 2005 is $560 million.
Finance Ministers agreed that the G8 debt relief proposal should be put forward for agreement at the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank in September. Once it is agreed it will be implemented as soon as possible.
The UK believes that debt relief should be funded through additional resources. In this way, it is an important source of additional funds for countries to spend on poverty reduction and the investments in health, education, water and infrastructure that are essential if the MDGs are to be met. We continue to lobby others to support this view.
Our share of the G8 debt agreement will be funded through the additional resources allocated to DFID in the recent Spending Review: by 2007–08, total UK aid will rise to nearly £6.5 billion a year, representing 0.47 per cent. of GNI, a real terms increase of 140 per cent. since 1997. Part of the increase in DFID's budget was earmarked for the provision of further debt relief, and it is these earmarked funds that will be used. Our multilateral debt assistance will be in addition to generous UK contributions to the IDA 14 and AfDF X replenishments.
It is essential that the resources freed up by debt relief are used to support poverty reduction. For this reason, the G8 debt agreement provides debt relief only to those countries that have demonstrated their commitment to reducing poverty through implementing a successful Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). PRSPs include strategies for investment in health, education and water and sanitation to help countries to reach the Millennium Development Goals. The countries that qualify for the G8 debt agreement have reached completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative have demonstrated their commitment to poverty reduction and sound financial management.
In order to reach completion point, a country must maintain macroeconomic stability under a PRGF-supported program, carry out key structural and social reforms, and implement a PRSP for one year upon which Bank and Fund staff prepare recommendations to their respective boards for consideration. The final determination is made by the boards of the two institutions.
The World Bank and IMF are both undertaking reviews of their approach to conditionality this year. In the context of these reviews, the UK will work to ensure that these institutions only support programmes which are agreed rather than imposed, and where benchmarks to assess progress are focussed on the impact of a country's overall policy programme rather than any particular policy decision.
Hospital Infections
Mr. Burstow:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many deaths have been recorded where (a) Clostridium difficile associated disease, (b) MRSA, (c) vancomycin resistant enterococci, (d) multi-resistant acinetobacter spp and (e) penicillin resistant
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Streptococcus pneumoniae was mentioned on the death certificate in each year since 2001; and in how many cases it was also the underlying cause of death. [8229]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has asked him to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 30 June 2005:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many deaths have been recorded where (a)clostridium difficile associated disease, (b) MRSA, (c)vancomycin resistant enterococci, (d) multi-resistant acinetobacter and (e)penicillin resistant streptococcus pneumoniae was mentioned on the death certificate in each year since 2001; and in how many cases it was also the underlying cause of death. I am replying in his absence. (8229)
In the Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), deaths involving enterocolitis due to Clostridium difficile can all be identified from the code A04.7. Enterocolitis is the commonest illness caused by C. difficile infection. For causes other than enterocolitis that are also known to be associated with C. difficile, it is not possible to identify from ICD codes alone the number of deaths where C. difficile actually contributed to the death. For this reason, the only routinely available mortality statistics on C. difficile are those where it was associated with enterocolitis. These figures were provided in answer to a question from Mr David Lidington MP, Hansard Written Answer 3764, page 49W.
Figures for MRSA were published in an annual report in Health Statistics Quarterly on 24 February 2005. 1 Figures for vancomycin resistant enterococci and multi-resistant acinetobacter spp are not available from routine death certification data. These are laboratory classifications of microorganisms, details of which are rarely used in describing the illnesses from which patients suffer or die.
Figures on the number of deaths involving Streptococcus pneumoniae are given in the attached table for the years 2001 to 2003.
1 Office for National Statistics (2005) Report: Deaths involving MRSA: England and Wales, 1999–2003. Health Statistics Quarterly 25, 60–65.
(18)Selected using the codes J13, G00.l and A40.3 and a text search within codes A49.1 and H66 from the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10)
(19)Figures are for deaths occurring in the years 2001 to 2003.
Source:
Office for National Statistics
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